For the record, I've been playing Elite since the beginning. I took a long hiatus, but I remember back when you could pull an assassinate mission for 250,000 credits against an anaconda, jump into a system with a Viper, jump into some USSs, and win the battle by staying close and hitting your SCBs every time you got to one bar left. When the SCB nerf hit, that was over. Then I ran trades. I ran soo many trades. I was the best trader. I had a pad of paper next to me, all of the online tools, and whenever a trade route became less than 3,000 cr. profitable, I found a new one. I ran those trades for days on end. Then I got my Clipper. And I quit playing.
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I really wanted to get back into it. I had never done anything with PowerPlay, so I wanted to check that out. The planetary landings sounded cool, but honestly not worth $50. So I had a couple friends over and we fired it back up. I read about Sophis and Ceos, and was like "Hey, there's a way for me to catch up on missed time, and a way for my buddies to get caught up to me." So we did a run, and it was not fast. If you don't re-roll the mission boards, but instead just hop from station to station, trying to fill up, that can take 2 hours with a 100 ton ship. Then the trip back, and the 11 delivery stations. I invested a solid 4 hours on each run, trying not to cheat the system. And I netted a hefty sum for it, probably around 20 million. And my friends could start catching up in their Cobras.
So after three runs or so, the missions started slowly drying up. I noticed it was harder and harder to get them. I started cheating. Since I was a trader before, and I was timing every aspect of how many Cr/hr I could make, I started looking at how long it takes to re-roll the board, how fast could I make it happen, trying to take every last second off. And I got really good at fuel-scooping and jumping to the next system. I got to the point where I had my coveted Anaconda, and could pull around 60 million credits in a night. Yes, a 4 hour night.
So then I had a lot of money, and decided to get cranking on ranks, since I really wanted to add that Imperial Cutter to my stable. I hate the Anaconda almost as much as that damn T9 I ended up in my first run at this game. I read "Go to Wu Guinagi" it was like the Sophis and Ceos of the Imperial Navy. So I did. I ran down there, and was able to get some missions for the first week or so. Yes, I was still cheating by re-rolling the mission boards, but I was getting massive increases in ranks. I bumped up a couple pretty quick. And I made some decent money at it. I was able to donate all my earnings, and keep my stash at around 120,000Cr. All was good. But then I couldn't get the progression missions. Either my ship was too small (running them in a Vulture for the fun RES site moments of saneness between the grind), or they weren't showing. I ran back to the bubble to work for my new Empress.
So now I've been running around for a while. A somewhat seasoned player, not a great pilot by any means, but I have like over a week of playing time in this game. Here are my issues:
1. The mission nerf is just stupid. I totally agree that running out to Sophis shouldn't net you 60 million credits in 4 hours. That's way too much. But I was in my allied, booming station and got a mission to haul 20-some tons next door. They paid less than 600 credits per ton. And that was a high paying job these days! Hauling mission tonnage should be close to what you get from hauling A-B missions, IMHO. That's 3,000 credits per ton for one hop away. If it's gonna be 10 hops away, that costs more, like rare trading makes more profits. I think that was the idea before, but now it's been nerfed to the point where nerf doesn't even qualify as a term. Maybe more like "paper-ed" or something, since these prices don't fly.
2. The missions for ranking, haul some boom data from here to there, are also totally worthless. I mean, I don't think 5,000Cr even puts gas in my tank for some of them.
3. AND THE BIGGEST ISSUE: There aren't any missions to get!!!!
So seriously, you have a 20 limit on the missions, right? This is what a Booming station gives me. Yeah, I know I don't have any rep with them yet, but how can I get it if they have absolutely 0 missions available?!?!
Here's what I say:
-Keep the nerf. I'm fine with that. 5,000 credits per mission, sure.
-Give me 10 missions to grab at each station, regardless of rep with the people. Give me penniless ones if I have no rep, give me elite ones if I'm allied. Let me work my way up the ladder. Start me off for 500 credits per mission, I don't care. But just give me something so I can start living in this system I want to make my home. Hopefully, eventually, I can become allied with all of the Imperials and get some 10,000 credit missions. Yay!
-Reduce the amount of help it does to rank progression if you have to also. I'm cool with that.
JUST GIVE US MISSIONS SO WE CAN QUIT CHEATING THE SYSTEM WITH RE-ROLLS!!!
/rant off
CMDR Torsol
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I really wanted to get back into it. I had never done anything with PowerPlay, so I wanted to check that out. The planetary landings sounded cool, but honestly not worth $50. So I had a couple friends over and we fired it back up. I read about Sophis and Ceos, and was like "Hey, there's a way for me to catch up on missed time, and a way for my buddies to get caught up to me." So we did a run, and it was not fast. If you don't re-roll the mission boards, but instead just hop from station to station, trying to fill up, that can take 2 hours with a 100 ton ship. Then the trip back, and the 11 delivery stations. I invested a solid 4 hours on each run, trying not to cheat the system. And I netted a hefty sum for it, probably around 20 million. And my friends could start catching up in their Cobras.
So after three runs or so, the missions started slowly drying up. I noticed it was harder and harder to get them. I started cheating. Since I was a trader before, and I was timing every aspect of how many Cr/hr I could make, I started looking at how long it takes to re-roll the board, how fast could I make it happen, trying to take every last second off. And I got really good at fuel-scooping and jumping to the next system. I got to the point where I had my coveted Anaconda, and could pull around 60 million credits in a night. Yes, a 4 hour night.
So then I had a lot of money, and decided to get cranking on ranks, since I really wanted to add that Imperial Cutter to my stable. I hate the Anaconda almost as much as that damn T9 I ended up in my first run at this game. I read "Go to Wu Guinagi" it was like the Sophis and Ceos of the Imperial Navy. So I did. I ran down there, and was able to get some missions for the first week or so. Yes, I was still cheating by re-rolling the mission boards, but I was getting massive increases in ranks. I bumped up a couple pretty quick. And I made some decent money at it. I was able to donate all my earnings, and keep my stash at around 120,000Cr. All was good. But then I couldn't get the progression missions. Either my ship was too small (running them in a Vulture for the fun RES site moments of saneness between the grind), or they weren't showing. I ran back to the bubble to work for my new Empress.
So now I've been running around for a while. A somewhat seasoned player, not a great pilot by any means, but I have like over a week of playing time in this game. Here are my issues:
1. The mission nerf is just stupid. I totally agree that running out to Sophis shouldn't net you 60 million credits in 4 hours. That's way too much. But I was in my allied, booming station and got a mission to haul 20-some tons next door. They paid less than 600 credits per ton. And that was a high paying job these days! Hauling mission tonnage should be close to what you get from hauling A-B missions, IMHO. That's 3,000 credits per ton for one hop away. If it's gonna be 10 hops away, that costs more, like rare trading makes more profits. I think that was the idea before, but now it's been nerfed to the point where nerf doesn't even qualify as a term. Maybe more like "paper-ed" or something, since these prices don't fly.
2. The missions for ranking, haul some boom data from here to there, are also totally worthless. I mean, I don't think 5,000Cr even puts gas in my tank for some of them.
3. AND THE BIGGEST ISSUE: There aren't any missions to get!!!!
So seriously, you have a 20 limit on the missions, right? This is what a Booming station gives me. Yeah, I know I don't have any rep with them yet, but how can I get it if they have absolutely 0 missions available?!?!
Here's what I say:
-Keep the nerf. I'm fine with that. 5,000 credits per mission, sure.
-Give me 10 missions to grab at each station, regardless of rep with the people. Give me penniless ones if I have no rep, give me elite ones if I'm allied. Let me work my way up the ladder. Start me off for 500 credits per mission, I don't care. But just give me something so I can start living in this system I want to make my home. Hopefully, eventually, I can become allied with all of the Imperials and get some 10,000 credit missions. Yay!
-Reduce the amount of help it does to rank progression if you have to also. I'm cool with that.
JUST GIVE US MISSIONS SO WE CAN QUIT CHEATING THE SYSTEM WITH RE-ROLLS!!!
/rant off
CMDR Torsol
